The present invention concerns solutions for winding coils of wire onto dynamo-electric machine components. More particularly, the present invention is concerned with the driving mechanism of winding needles which dispense wire to form the coils by moving with respect to a reference structure (e.g., poles) of the core body of the component.
Wire coils may be wound onto the poles of a lamination core or may be wound onto themselves in components that do not require or possess poles. The wire coils form magnetic fields required in the use of components belonging to dynamo-electric machines. More particularly, the wire coils can be associated with poles of the core body of the components in order to enhance and distribute the magnetic field for generating the final power output required from the dynamo-electric machines. For example, the previously mentioned lamination core may be either a stator core or an armature core of a dynamo-electric machine. The dynamo-electric machine as a whole may be an electric motor, which is used for many types of driving applications.
The ongoing improvement of the performance obtained from dynamo-electric machines has led to various improved geometric designs for the poles of a dynamo-electric machine component. These improved designs usually require extremely variable location of the wire coils. At the same time, the wire turns which form the coils on the component must also be orderly positioned with respect to the poles in order to occupy the areas adjacent to the poles with the maximum amount of wire turns.
In view of the foregoing, it is an object of the present invention to provide wire winding solutions for causing the winding needles to accomplish predetermined motions with respect to the component so that wire is predictably positioned on the component to form the wire coils. It is a further object of the present invention to provide winding needles that accomplish a combination of translational motion, rotational motion, and radial stratification motion with respect to the component. It is a still further object of the present invention to provide coaxial hollow shafts to impart these necessary motions to the winding needle.
These and other objects of the present invention will be more apparent in view of the following drawings and detailed description of the preferred embodiments.